What is it like to work in big law?

[pinballwizard]

Hi there! I am an American/Canadian dual citizen and am considering law school after I get my bachelors. I was hoping to learn more about big law here in Canada, but it seems that a lot of online resources and information are more U.S-centric. I was able to find basic information (7 sisters, some income info) but it is difficult to locate lots of other information. As such, I think that asking lawyers directly would be the next best thing to do! I was wondering if any big law lawyers could share about what it's like to work at these firms in Canada?

[canuckfanatic]

I briefly worked in Big Law in Vancouver. 

I worked 9am - 6pm, then would put a couple more hours in between 8pm-11pm. I tried my best to set myself up to have my weekends free, but I'd inevitably put in a few hours on Sunday mornings.

I worked in one of the smallest groups in the firm (commercial lending). The partner would start a matter, and after high-level negotiations and communication with the client and opposing counsel, I would be handed the file to run with. That meant drafting and negotiating all the ancillary documents, conducting due diligence, chasing the client for their corporate documents, tracking the progress on a closing agenda, chasing the client for signatures, and ultimately closing the deal.

Outside of the legal work, there was also the industry events and networking that the firm encouraged. For my area of law, that involved lunch/golf/hockey games with bankers.

[SNAILS]

You work hard, @canuckfanatic, but that's not terrible -- 55-60 hour week depending on what type of lunches you get. Is this average for big law?

[canuckfanatic]

5 hours ago, SNAILS said:

You work hard, @canuckfanatic, but that's not terrible -- 55-60 hour week depending on what type of lunches you get. Is this average for big law?

It was enough to keep me on track for the firm's target. If your goal is to hit your target (and if your practice group has enough work for you), I think this was fairly average. Obviously some weeks/weekends were crazy and you'd work non-stop to meet a deadline.

[SmallBart]

On 7/29/2024 at 6:59 AM, SNAILS said:

You work hard, @canuckfanatic, but that's not terrible -- 55-60 hour week depending on what type of lunches you get. Is this average for big law?

I'm not even a lawyer (yet) but I have it on good authority that 50-60 is pretty normal for Vancouver BL associates.